It's 5 o'clock somewhere...

oh, life with three. What can I say? It's tough. I would still say the toughest transition was going from no kids to one. It's all so new and stressful when it's your first kid. But this transition is tough for different reasons. There are now three little people who need me and well, only one of me. I have constant guilt about who I'm brushing off, wondering if I paid enough attention to one or another that day, making sure they all get quality time and attention. It's hard. Tate needs me so much right now, the bigger kids are forced to wait or fend for themselves.

You'd think by the recent photos that Hadley is the perfect little mommy's helper and just thrilled to pieces about her new brother. I guess in some ways she is, but there is some major unexplained mischief going on at our house right now. It's not like she's overtly jealous, or at least I don't see it. She has never once asked me to put the baby down or been upset with me for paying attention to him. She's desperate to help, bringing me diapers, asking to hold Tate's bottle, popping his paci back in his mouth when it falls out and my favorite, leaning over him in the swing (or where ever he's currently propped) and singing to him and stroking his hair. She calls him "Tate the Great!" and "Tatey Tate" (she came up with this all on her own) and she constantly asks where he is. She's so gentle and nurturing with him.

But then..... the messes! oh, the messes!! It almost puts me over the edge. I don't know what is going on at our house lately, but it's just been one disaster after the next. I go from room to room, wondering what special surprise I'll find.

Some of Hadley's recent shenanigans have included flooding the kitchen with water from the fridge dispenser, emptying the contents of Wyatt's dresser onto his floor, dumping all the diapers from the box into a huge pile in Tate's room (she told me she was making "cheese sandwiches for the picnic". I suppose I should be glad she's using her imagination??), soaking all of Finley's food in his water bowl, sprinkling coffee grounds from the organic bin all over the floor and the topper, pooping in Wyatt's closet. The sight almost brought tears to my eyes and not in a good way. The only saving grace is I'm now able to have a glass of wine in the evening. I really look forward to it some nights...

I don't care who did it, you're both going to clean it up!!

I suppose she could be jealous on some subconscious level or maybe it's just boredom. I don't really have any trouble with her in the mornings when Wyatt is at school. She seems to be at her worst when he's home in the afternoon. The more he laughs, the more it eggs her on. She's a performer and loves a captive and entertained audience. They  have their own little made up language that I don't understand. He says something that sounds like "GRAY!" and laughs manically. This is apparently her cue to go into destruction mode. I asked him where he heard this and he said "It's French" (it's not, I checked). When I'm in another room and I hear that diabolical laughter and "GRAY!" being shouted, I know there's trouble. I go racing in, wondering what new disaster awaits me.

I have had my babysitter come over 3 days a week for the past two weeks and we'll have her next week as well until she goes back to work. Sometimes I leave the house, sometimes I just stay and get things done while she plays with Wyatt and Hadley. I'm pretending I have a nanny. It has been so great having an extra set of hands around. She's even been on a couple of outings with us. The kids adore her and it's so nice for them to get extra attention while I tend to Tate and other things that need to be done around here. I make sure Tate is settled each night by the big kids' bedtime so I can read to them. It's always been a special time at our house where each kid gets one on one attention. Dayven and I usually swap off reading stories to one or the other. I'm beat by evening but I do enjoy this time with them so I muster up the energy.

As a girlfriend of mine always says after she complains about some exhausting phase her kids are in, this too shall pass. Some day they'll be all grown up and won't need me anymore, or not nearly as much and then I'll be sad. For now, I'll just take the good with the bad and enjoy them while they're still my babies, messes and all!